Tinubu, Fashola, activists, others unite for Abiola

By Miriam Ndikanwu 

•Asiwaju Tinubu (second right), Chief Akande (left), Fashola (second left) and Musa at the ocassion...yesterday

FORMER Lagos State Governor and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his predecessor,  Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and  human rights activists yesterday insisted on the immortalisation of the late Chief Moshood  Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 election.
It was at the event organised by the Lagos State Government to mark the 19th anniversary of the annulled poll. The event featured a lecture with the theme: Challenges and Prospects of True Federalism, Political Legitimacy and National Security.
The ceremony, which was held at the Lagos Television, Ikeja was attended by prominent Nigerians among whom are ACN National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande,  former Governor of Kaduna State Alhaji Balarabe  Musa,   Lagos State ACN chair Henry Ajomale, founder of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) Chief Frederick Fasehun and traditional rulers.
  Tinubu  said renaming  University of Lagos (UNILAG)  Moshood Abiola University, Lagos,was no longer unique, adding that the choice of UNILAG gives an impression that Abiola was a sectional leader.
He said that mandate was a national mandate, and I support the call that since the President has known the result of the annulled election, Abiola should be recognised post-humously as the nation’s second democratically elected president  and declare either his birthday or June 12 as a national holiday as it was done for Martin Luther King in the United States. 
‘’This is a man who struggled and died for this country. That is the minimum that we will demand from the Federal Government.”
   In Tinubu’s view, the country has deviated from practising democracy. “If anybody says that we had democracy  in 1999 when we started, I will say ‘yes’. But now we do not have democracy, justice and freedom. The danger is here.
“We had rule of law until few years ago when the National Assembly amended the Constitution and took our right away through the back door. We were able to retrieve a stolen mandate in Osun, Ekiti and Edo states. But immediately they noticed it, they went ahead to amend the Constitution to limit the right of Nigerians to fair hearing to 180 days.”
He urged Fashola and other lawyers to challenge the amendment in court, saying that allowing the trend to stay will mar future elections  and plunge the country’s perceived democracy into total illusion.
 “Constitutionally, if only we must amend that, we must have more members to sign on it. The rigging galore is possible now. Once they announce the result of fake election, you have no more call. And then they ask you to wait for 180 days. But one way or the other, we will fight for our right. The trenches are not over. We are back to the trenches, for our liberty and rights in this country”.
Tinubu, who backed Gen Muhammadu Buhari’s position against rigging on  the 2015 election,  argued ‘’if you take my rights, you are asking me to resort to self help and it is dangerous for this country”.
 Alhaji Balarabe Musa,who chaired the occasion, noted that since the beginning of the remembrance of the anniversary of the annulment of the elections, the statement of Chief Humphrey Nwosu, the electoral umpire of the June 12 elections admitting that MKO Abiola clearly won  and the recent move by President Goodluck Jonathan to rename the University of Lagos after Abiola has justified the continuation of such remembrance.
But the former Kaduna governor said the late Abiola deserved more than getting a university renamed after him . He  called on the Federal Government to establish a judicial commission of enquiry to find out the circumstances that led to the annulment of the elections and punish those responsible for it.
“This is the only way we can ensure that this does not happen in the country again. The Federal Government should also establish a national monument to preserve the legacies of the late philanthropist”, Musa said.
  Fashola  said there was need for Nigerians to have hope and exhibit patriotism towards changing things that presently stand against our collective will.
 “I like to remind us that we should tell those people who say that we cannot stand together irrespective of our tribe that they are lying, I like to remind those who say that we are so religiously divided that we cannot have a second voice, that on June 12 we stood together , Nigeria resolved to cast their lots behind a team they thought will take them out of poverty, that is what June 12 must mean to us at the time that Abiola decided to claim back his mandate, it was a position that he took against all the odds, he did not have an army but yet he stood up against a military regime that until the people of Nigeria who voted for him ask him to step back he was their president-elect and will continue to fight for their mandate”.
Fashola added that the events of June 12 1993 elections should “inspire all of us to courage at the time Abiola stood up to claim his mandate let me remind us that the few journalists who stood to stand by him were detained but today in spite of our imperfection we have left that stage, let me remind us too that at that stage our laws were full of decrees that we could not even go to court but Abiola stood up in those difficult times and we can afford to do no  less today, we can afford to be no less patriotic than he was if must change those things that we do not accept”.
Founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) Chief Fredrick Fasheun in his brief remarks suggested that the plan by the Federal Government to introduce N2000 denomination should carry the portrait of late MKO Abiola as well as rename the Abuja National Stadium after him.
 He said he was less optimistic of a change in Nigeria saying that democracy has become a mirage with the height of insecurity and lack of social justice which according to him, has seen the incessant killings by the radical sect, Boko Haram gain ground daily.
 Corroborating him, a rights activist, Comrade Femi Obayori also expressed pessimism about a likely change in the fortunes of the country except a Sovereign National Conference is converged to discuss the way forward for Nigeria.  
The guest lecturer, Professor Adigun Agbaje, said the halting of the democratic processes after June 12 by the Ruling forces of retrogression signposted the abortion of the promises that the day held for Nigerians and their beloved country.
He listed such erased promises to include a permanent end to unconstitutional rule in all its garb and colours; a bitter adjusted and organic federation; emergence and sustenance of a new Pan-Nigerian; patriotic political elite with strategic vision to reconstruct and re-channel Nigeria politics, economy and society to serve the public good rather than private selfish interest of a few.
He however stated that there is much reason not to lose hope as recent events have underscores the possibility that the Nigerian people are increasingly leaving their leaders behind in their search for meaningful federalism, development, justice, equity, peace and security.
“ they are raising more questions on the legitimacy of the existing political order than they get answers to in the face of increasing lack of capacity for self-transformation by the elite.
“there is increasing use of conventional and new/social media, especially by the youth and increasing civic engagement across board to address such issues as  electoral governance, corruption and governance effectiveness.” he said.

SOURCE: 13 June 2012.